Will Windows ever be toppled?

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The firm has clearly learned lessons from the Vista era. It has demonstrated that by the manner in which it’s approached Windows 7, not least its adaptability to other platforms. Microsoft is keenly aware of the threat of people moving to other platforms, and thus being more accepting of the differing operating systems they offer. Furthermore, it won’t be lost on Microsoft just how its Internet Explorer market share has eroded. The Windows business is absolutely pivotal to the ongoing survival of Microsoft, and were it under even the slightest threat, the firm would fight hammer and nail to keep it secure. That includes the kind of aggressive price promotions that we’ve been seeing in both the consumer and business space over the past few months, along with an ongoing promotional campaign that’s set to keep pushing Windows hard for some time to come.

Armour

Furthermore, the firm will be keen to not leave too many chinks in its armour. Google Chrome OS is already the most concerted and concentrated attack on Windows in some time, but few people seriously expect it to do anything other than negligible damage to Microsoft’s bottom line. If there’s even the slightest hint that the market is interested in that kind of OS, just as it did with the netbook market (eventually), Microsoft will be tailoring a product to suit it and cement its position as soon as possible. It’s why so much effort too is going into its mobile operating system products.

Yet, ultimately, it’s those netbooks that show just why Microsoft is so strong and solidified in the market. The launch of netbooks gave consumers a choice for the very first time on the shop shelves between a modern Linux, and a not-so-modern Windows. Consumers chose Windows en-masse, with the common argument being that Linux was too complicated. It’s not, of course. It’s just the world is schooled in Windows, and the world doesn’t like, on the whole, unlearning what it has learnt.

That, inevitably, leads to the key reason why Microsoft’s dominance of the operating system market is guaranteed for at least another generation, and likely for some time beyond that. Simply, it has the education market sewn up. In schools around the country, and across the planet, children are being taught computing via a Windows interface. That’s what they’re being brought up with, that’s what they’re getting used to, and in the same manner that few of us change banks once we’ve settled on one, very few will look to change operating system too often. While Windows is dominant in education, there’s simply no room for anyone else to get in.

It’s a lead that’s Microsoft’s to lose. If the firm adapts to new platforms, and continues to heed the lessons it’s been taught over the past years, then try as the likes as Google and Apple might (and Apple’s reluctance to make its OS available for PC is likely to be ongoing), it’s going to be a Windows world for a long time to come.

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